My child scored an 1150 on the “new” SAT & ACT score of 23. She has a weighted GPA 3.9, is currently Class President, works p/t job, 4 years on school’s softball team. Wants to attend CalPoly SLO, UC Santa Barbara & Santa Clara University. What are her chances of getting in? Both parents did not attend college so new to this whole process.
Is she being recruited for Softball at any of these schools?
GPA of 3.9 weighted, is this the UC capped weighted, HS weighted on transcript??
Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation so plug all her grades into the RogerHub UC GPA calculator and the GPA is capped at 8 semesters of Honors points for UC approved Honors/AP/IB or DE courses taken 10-11th grades. Also make sure if she took any Math (Algebra/Geometry) or Foreign Language classses in Middle school they are reported on her SLO application.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
For UCSB, they will use the UC capped weighted GPA (8 semesters of extra Honors points) for the 10-11th grades only.
What is her intended major since SLO admits by major?
Her SAT/ACT score are low for UCSB/SLO and SCU. Being first generation will help and are these the only schools she is applying??
She needs to apply widely if she wants to stay in California so I would have at least 2 safety schools, 3-4 Match schools and 2-3 Reach schools on her list.
Her GPA is solid but it will depend upon how her GPA is calculated. By the HS or using the above calculator. Also Santa Clara will look at her Unweighted GPA and all schools will look at her HS course rigor.
What is your local Cal state? I would definitely apply to the local Cal state as a possible safety school since local applicants get priority.
Just to give you an idea of where her GPA and test scores fall within the UC system:
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:
UCB: 14%
UCLA: 14%
UCSD: 44%
UCSB: 54%
UCD: 58%
UCI: 65%
UCSC: 85%
UCR: 94%
UCM: 96%
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:
UCB: 1280-1490
UCLA: 1280-1500
UCSD: 1250-1470
UCSB: 1290-1450
UCD: 1190-1430
UCI: 1190-1420
UCSC: 1170-1380
UCR: 1090-1310
UCM: 1020-1230
25th - 75th percentiles for ACT:
UCB: 30-34
UCLA: 30-34
UCSD: 29-34
UCSB: 28-33
UCD: 26-32
UCI: 26-32
UCSC: 26-31
UCR: 23-30
UCM: 20-27
She should add UC Santa Cruz and Riverside to her list along with Cal States such as San Jose State, CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach, San Francisco State etc…
Here is a link for SLO’s Freshman profile 2017. https://admissions.calpoly.edu/prospective/profile.html
As you can see, her test scores fall well below the averages.
Here is a link for SCU’s Freshman profile; https://www.scu.edu/admission/undergraduate/choosing-scu/class-profile/
Best of luck and make sure she has one solid safety school on the list.
SLO and UCSB are Reach schools
SCU probably a High Match or Low Reach.
Thanks so much for all this information. Yes she’s also looking to apply to Cal State Monterey Bay, San Jose State, St Marys in Moraga. She wants to stay close to home. When she plugged in her numbers she used her official transcript…and yes she took Spanish for 3 years in high school, was in honors classs and has taken 4 AP classes total.
Thank you.
Oh and no she’s not going into these schools for Softball she’s doing it for fun.
I suggest maybe retaking the SAT and or ACT to solidfy your chances even more!
Well if she is applying to SJSU, CSUMB and St Mary’s, then she will have at least these three schools as Solid Match/Safety schools.
What is her intended major since her chances are very dependent upon the major she chooses to apply for the UC’s and SLO?
SLO for instance has an acceptance rate of around 8% for Computer Science but around 90% for Dairy Science. The competitive majors for the UC’s are usually the STEM majors and Psychology.
She’s wanting to take communications / political science. Yes, I’ve heard it’s more competitive at SLO for Engineering / STEM kids. Thanks for your help.
Projected acceptance rates for both Communications and Political Science are around 19%. This does vary from year to year and since SLO is overenrolled this year, it may be less than that for next year.
Her SAT score is better than her ACT. Have her try the SAT again with prep.
SLO only accepts up to the November SAT/ACT sitting, so unless she took it again in November, it will not help her chances. Cal States do superscore the SAT/ACT.
Thanks again for everyone’s help. It’s really appreciated…wish I would have found this blog earlier.
Just wanted to give you all an update 
My daughter was accepted into 7 colleges
Loyola -LA
St Mary’s
University of San Diego
UC Riverside
UC Merced
States: Sacramento, Monterey Bay
Does anyone know anything about LMU - Business School?
Hello, im an incoming senior who will apply to a pool of colleges similar to your daughters list. And I was wondering what her unweighted gpa was if its not too much to ask. Thank you